Chapter One

 

Her name was Summer, and she took after the season, blossoming as the days grew longer and warmer. Other girls might stay inside, but she would be out in the sun, golden hair flying in the air behind her as she raced up and down on her bike, or streaming back as she swam like a fish, or leapt and danced as she did, at every opportunity.

It was inevitable that when it came time to find a summer job she would look for something outside, and she spent several summers as a lifeguard at city beaches before heading off to college. There she decided to take Forestry Management and Conservation. It would allow her to do a lot of work out of doors, and it paid very well indeed.

Given the choice of colleges, Summer's had chosen Texas A&M since it almost never got below sixty degrees, even in the heart of winter. There she threw herself into basketball, volleyball, soccer, and swimming as much as she did her courses. She also got a small motorcycle, and drove it increasingly far out, exploring the local area and getting a number of speeding tickets despite her best effort at charming the Highway Patrol.

She looked down on one now. It was for almost $300, and it frustrated her as she'd been keeping a fairly good watch for police. She wasn't sure where that cop had hidden. He'd come out of nowhere. She had tried explaining that the road was clear and clean and straight and she'd just been enjoying herself, but he was a humorless prig.

So what if driving fast was riskier? She had always been a risk-taker. And if you couldn't take risks in Texas where could you? She sighed and stuffed the ticket into her pocket, started the bike, and pulled out onto the highway, wondering how she was going to pay for it.

It was nearing March so she'd used up most of her money by now. March break was coming up and she'd intended going down to Lake Havasu in Arizona as she'd heard there were some pretty wild parties there. But she had less than a month to pay this damned ticket.

There was nothing for it. She was going to have to get some sort of job, at least long enough to pay for the ticket. It would interfere with her sports, which was a pain, but it couldn't be avoided. When she got back to school she wandered down to the student employment office, looking for something which would let her pay the ticket off quickly.

There wasn't much there. The part-time jobs that could be done on weekends and evenings were in high demand and short supply. There were an awful lot of students at Texas A&M, and the surrounding city - if it could be properly called that - was not very large.

Then, as she was glumly examining the board one of the student volunteers came over and posted a couple of new ones, and her eyes widened when she saw the description of one: lifeguard.

What was more it was only for weekends! That was nearly perfect! She snatched it off the wall and headed up to the desk.

"You're not supposed to take it off the wall, you know," the man said.

He didn't say it crossly, though. Most men were nice to Summer most of the time, something she'd become well-used-to.

"Sorry. I just thought it was the perfect job since I worked the last few summers as a city lifeguard."

"Do you have your own transportation? This is out of town."

"Yes. How far?"

"About a twenty-minute drive."

Summer had driven around enough by then to know there was a whole lot of nothing once you got ten minutes outside the College Station city limits.

Twenty minutes meant fifteen minutes the way she drove, maybe less. The job had twelve-hour days, though, which was bad, although it meant she could pick up more hours and thus more money faster. And they did supply your lunch and dinner, which was good. She figured it must be some sort of holiday camp.

She called the number she was given and discussed the job with a guy called Henderson, told him about her experience as a lifeguard, and set up an interview. With the help of her phone's GPS, she had no trouble finding the place, though it was a long way from anywhere, with nothing but trees and brush on all sides for a mile or so.

What she didn't expect, when she turned in, was that it would have a large pair of double gates that were closed. She looked around and saw a call button and pressed it, then waited. There was a camera up on the fence, too, and she wondered why a holiday camp would have a locked gate.

The gate slid aside, so she presumed someone had looked at her on the camera. She accelerated through it and down the narrow road, trees on either side. It turned once, then turned again and she saw a building ahead. As she got closer she began to suspect it wasn't some sort of holiday camp or hotel but a private house.

A very large one.

It was done in Spanish style, with a wall that looked or was made to look like pale brown stucco with a tile roof and a long wooden gallery running along the second floor. She pulled up in front of what looked like the front door, hopped off and removed her helmet. She combed out her hair and walked to the front door, somewhat curious and confused.

A tall, thin, middle-aged black man opened it and looked at her with interest.

"Miss Foster," he said, holding out his hand. I'm George Henderson."

Summer shook his hand and he ushered her into the building. It did indeed look like a private house, or maybe a private mansion, Spanish style. She'd never been in a house with so much space before, and looked around uncertainly.

"Come through here," Henderson said.

He led her down a hall, then into a huge kitchen, through it, and out a door into the back yard. And there, of course, was the pool... or lake... or something. It was simply enormous. There were no straight lines. The interlock around one side was gently curved, and there was what looked like a beach on the other side.

There was an island reachable by a narrow arched bridge, and then a large scattering of boulders along one side with a waterfall spilling down over the top. To the left was another pile of rocks, bigger, higher, with a small round opening a couple of feet above the water which looked like a slide. There was also another waterfall. But she could see darkness beneath, which she supposed was some kind of cave.

The pool was probably over a hundred and fifty feet long, and almost as wide. There were tall trees and brush all around it, and at least a half dozen locations with chaise loungers and chairs to relax on.

"My pool," Henderson said.

"Uhm, wow," she replied, eyes wide.

"Yes, that's what I wanted when I had it built," he said, a trifle smugly.

"And uh, you need a lifeguard?" she asked uncertainly.

"Not during the week during the day. The kids are at school. But on the weekends not only do I get my kids, but their friends, plus my nieces and nephews and their friends, plus sometimes my friends and their families. It's not unusual to have twenty or thirty kids here ranging from seven or eight to twenty. And I can't rely on the older ones to look after the younger ones because, well, they're morons."

She snorted.

"They don't have to pay attention, and get easily distracted by playing around and showing off for each other. And most of them, aside from my kids, can't swim very well. You can be sure I made sure my kids knew how to swim!"

"I see," she said.

"On the weekends they start showing up in the late morning, and the older ones can be here until the late evening when I throw them out. Well, except for mine, but they can generally be trusted to not drown themselves. I have better things to do than watch them all, and since I can afford to pay someone else to do so, that's what I'm aiming to do. The job pays $12 an hour."

Given the minimum wage in Texas was $7.25 that wasn't bad. And she'd earn enough to pay off the ticket - minus deductions, in just a couple of weekends or so.

"Sounds... doable," she said.

"Okay. You're officially my son's girlfriend."

Summer looked at him in surprise.

"I'm gonna do this off the books. I don't want to mess around with all that government crap about taxes and other deductions. So you're here as my son's girlfriend who just happens to spend all her time here at the pool because she likes swimming pools."

"Uh, you think anyone will ask?"

"With the crowd of people I get here, it wouldn't surprise me. Everyone wants to enjoy my pool, after all," he said, looking smug again.

"How old is your son?"

He laughed. "I don't think it would be believable if he was ten, honey. He's twenty, so don't worry. He's a lot better looking than I am, too, so no one will doubt it."

"Uhm, okay," she said doubtfully.

Just so this guy didn't think she really was his girlfriend.

"If he gets on your nerves tell him to get lost," Henderson said. "If he doesn't take a hint, call me. I don't expect that to be an issue. He has no shortage of girls throwing themselves at him."

"Okay."

***

The job was a little strange, but she was pleased. It paid well, and she liked being a lifeguard. Henderson had a cook and a 'houseman' whatever that was, as servants, and he introduced her to them both in case she had any questions or wanted to eat or drink something.

She drove back to school and parked her bike, then headed up to her dorm room.

"Hey," she said as he closed the door behind her.

"Hey," Keri replied.

Keri was her roommate, a native Texan from Dallas, she was short and thin and busty, and conservative. Summer had found her to be a bit of a prude about certain things and topics of conversation, but not as religious as she'd have expected. They got along reasonably well despite Summer being a somewhat more liberal girl from Maine.

She was sitting on her bed reading a textbook, with the TV on in the background.

"Got the job," she said.

"Oh, cool," Keri said. "What's it pay?"

"Twelve bucks an hour!"

"Oh, wow. Lucky you!"

"Yeah. I mean, if I hadn't been right there when they put the job up I'm sure someone else would have grabbed it first."

She put her helmet away and hung up her jacket.

"So where is it?"

"Outside of town. Get this, it's in a private house."

"A private house needs a lifeguard?"

"It's a mansion, like a big estate the size of a hotel. The guy has a humongous pool with waterfalls and islands and stuff. And he says his kids and his relatives and friends show up every day so there can be twenty or thirty kids there and he doesn't feel like watching them all day."

"Makes sense. Rich guy, huh? Is he married?"

Summer snorted and opened the closet, then dragged out a box that had some of the stuff she'd brought but had never unpacked.

"He's like in his forties or fifties or something like that. Kind of skinny. And black," she said almost as an afterthought.

"Black? You're gonna work as a lifeguard in a place full of black people?"

"I don't know. I mean, his kids probably have white friends too. What difference does it make?"

"God, you northerners are so innocent," Keri said.

"Innocent? Not hardly," Summer said, digging in the box and then pulling out a couple of bathing suits.

"Let me tell you something, girl, white and black people don't hang out together that much in Texas."

"Well, I'm not a Texan. And anyway, I'm not hanging out, I'm working."

She took out her white bikini and examined it.

"You're going to wear a bikini?"

Summer looked up in surprise.

"I always wear bikinis."

"Not when you go swimming."

"That's the swimming team," Summer said. "You have to wear a black one-piece. This is more an unofficial lifeguard at a private house."

"Yes, but you're a blonde!"

Summer looked at her in surprise, swirled her head, gripped a handful of hair and stared at it in pretended astonishment.

"I'm blonde! When did that happen!?" she exclaimed.

"Ha-ha. You know what I mean."

"Haven't got a clue."

"You're going to be this tall, pretty blonde girl in a bikini surrounded by Black guys! You know how Black guys go after blondes!"

"In my experience, all guys go for blondes," she said.

"But Black guys, well, and Hispanics... and all minorities, really, have this view of blondes as these sort of wild, slutty sex goddesses."

"We are," Summer said with a laugh.

"They'll go after you like flies on honey!"

"Well, I am pretty sweet."

"Summer!"

"Keri! I know how to say no to guys, believe me. I've been practicing it since I was thirteen."

And she had. She was tall, lithe and slender, but with a firm, toned body which included a nice butt and breasts which were, if not as big as Keri, certainly full and high and firm. She had never had any trouble attracting attention from boys - of any race or age.

"Just so they take no for an answer," Keri muttered.

"If they don't they'll take a knee in the nuts. Look, it's a humongous mansion with servants and everything. The back yard is bigger than the courtyard out front. And about the only time I'll be going inside is probably to get lunch from the cook."

"Well, don't say I didn't warn you, Yankee. Those black boys go for blonde girls like cats with catnip. And you know what they say about them?"

"No, what?" Summer sighed.

"They all have huge... you-know-whats."

Summer grinned but refrained from saying something which would offend her roommate, like a promise to do her best to see for herself.

A huge you-know-what didn't sound unappealing at all. Maybe some of the 'kids' at Henderson's pool would be older and cute and worth getting to know. God knew it was boring hanging around a pool without anyone to talk to.

Still, she did consider her bikini again. She'd always worn a one-piece at her lifeguard jobs because that was what they required. But if she wasn't officially a lifeguard then it'd kind of look weird to be wearing a one-piece, like she was some kind of weird, nerdy conservative type.

What she needed was a one-piece which was not dull and boring and old-fashioned like her school swimsuit. She needed one that was reasonably sexy so as to not have people wondering if she was some kind of Mormon, but not too sexy.

She needed to go shopping - online. Because she knew from experience there just wasn't anything in town. She sighed, got her tablet and then called up Amazon. Normally she'd never buy a swimsuit without trying it on, but if she found what she liked and then found it on Amazon prime she could return it easily.

She found a black suit that looked conservative but sexy. It was a speedo, with white stripes up the sides, and a high neck which also had a white stripe around it. It was cut high at the hips, though, unlike her very conservative school suits, and was a bit cheeky, but not too much.

She ordered it for next day delivery and sighed at yet another cost. But, it was the cost of doing business, she thought. She'd make it back soon enough.